Gov. John Easton

John Easton (1624–1705) was a political leader in the Colony of Rhode Island Providence Plantations, devoting decades to public service before eventually becoming governor of the colony.

Biography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Easton

Born in Hampshire, England, he sailed to New England with his widowed father and older brother, settling in Ipswich and Newbury in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. As a supporter of the dissident ministers John Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson during the Antinomian Controversy, his father was exiled, and settled in Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island (later called Rhode Island) with many other Hutchinson supporters. Here there was discord among the leaders of the settlement, and his father followed William Coddington to the south end of the island where they established the town of Newport. The younger Easton remained in Newport the remainder of his life, where he became involved in civil affairs before the age of 30.

The son of the Quaker governor, Nicholas Easton, the younger Easton was also a lifelong Quaker, and following his death in 1705 was buried in the Coddington Cemetery in Newport where his father and several other Quaker governors are also interred.

Historian Thomas W. Bicknell wrote of Easton, "Governor Easton was one of the best qualified and most efficient of Colonial governors. His knowledge of the history of the Colony was complete, his judicial ability was tempered by long experience and careful study, and his great activity and energy, mental and physical, partook of the quality of men at life's meridian. Weakness in policy or vacillation in opinion found no lodgment in Governor Easton's administration."[21]

Ancestry

The ancestry of John Easton's father, Nicholas, was published by Jane Fletcher Fiske in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register in 2000, and she published the ancestry of Easton's mother, Mary Kent, in the same journal in 2008 and 2009.[22][23][24]

Family

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Easton-1130

John married first, on January 4, 1661, Mehitable Gaunt. [1] [7] She was the daughter of Peter and Lydia (___) Guant, born c 1640, likely at Sandwich, Massachusetts. [3]

His wife Mehitable died on November 11, 1673 at Newport, Rhode Island. [1] [8] [4] [3]

His second wife was Alice (___), she died at Newport on March 24, 1689, aged 68 years. [1] [8] [4] [3]

John died on December 12, 1705, age 84 years. [1] [8] [4] [3] He is buried in the Coddington Burial Ground at Newport. [9]

Children

1. James born on February 23, 1663 [10]; died on March 23, 1697; married Miriam Allen. [3] [4]
2. Peter born on September 10, 1665 [10]; died on June 4, 1690. [8] [3]
3. Mary born on June 10, 1668 [10]; married Daniel Thurston. [3] [4]
4. John born on September 7, 1670 [10]; died on January 14, 1720. [8] [3]
5. Paul born on February 2, 1673 [10]; likely died young as he is not mentioned in the will of his father, nor that of his grandmother Lydia Gaunt. [3]

Timeline

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Easton

1634, March 25- Nicholas Easton with sons Peter and John boarded the ship "Mary and John" at Southampton, England, bound for New England. This and other events were recorded by Peter Easton in a journel.

1634, March 26- Nicholas took the oath of supremacy and allegiance just before sailing.

1634, May 14- Nicholas with his two sons, Peter and John, came ashore in New England.

Nicholas first settled in Ipswich, MA, but moved on to Newbury, MA in 1635. In 1638, he with his sons moved to Hampton, NH for a short time.

1639, May 1- Nicholas and sons arrived in Newport, RI and built the first English building there. This house was on Farewell Street, near Broad Street, and burned in 1641.

John Easton:

1653-54: Attorney General for Portsmouth and Newport, RI.

1654-60, 1663: Commissioner.

1655- Freeman.

1656-57, 1660-70, 1672-74: Attorney General for the Colony.

1665-66, 1671-72: Deputy to the General Assembly.

1666-74, 1676, 1681-86, 1689-90: Assistant.

1674-76: Deputy Governor.

1675- He wrote this year an account of the Indian war entitled: "A True Relation of what I know and of Reports and my Understanding concerning the Beginning and Progress of the War now between the English and the Indians."

1676, August 24- He was a member of a court Martial held at Newport, RI for the trial of certain Indians charged with being engaged in King Philip's designs.

1690-95: Governor of Rhode Island Colony.

1700- Justice of the Peace.

Nicholas and family became early members of the Newport Quakers in 1657 or 1658. Meetings were held in private homes, including that of the Eastons, until a meeting house was built.

Siblings: Peter born 1622 and Freelove died 1671.

References

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12242792/john-easton